non conference/future scheduling

The topic of our less than stellar non conference schedule has come up in a few different topics recently. I didn't want to derail any of those any further, but I wanted to put our non conference scheduling into context. If nothing else, to create a timeline. We all know that there are a lot of moving pieces with the non conference schedules, and we seem to have a history of certain series getting cancelled or rescheduled on us. I'm not trying to justify any decisions, but I am trying to see when they were made/announced.

(Apologies, some of these links may not work due to free article limits, but they're primarily just used as cited sources. Most of them are news stories from years ago.)

We really need to start on June 26, 2006, when we announced a series with Wisconsin for 2008-2009, although those games were later pushed to 2016-2017.

In February 2012, the ACC announced a 9 game conference schedule, set to start when Pitt and Syracuse joined the ACC in 2013.

Then the Notre Dame deal happened in September 2012.

By October 2012, the ACC backtracked on their 9 game plan, going back to an eight game schedule.

This is probably where some of our scheduling woes started, because we'd only planned to fill three games per year, and then suddenly had to add a fourth non-conference game. Compounding that issue was that our original noncon schedule in 2013 was Alabama, Marshall, Western Carolina . . . and Pitt. Adding Pitt to the ACC and going to 9 conference games wasn't going to be a problem for us. Our schedule wouldn't have changed. But by sticking with 8 conference games, VT got stuck with a hole on the schedule. We added ECU. (Our original deal with ECU ran 2006-2011.)

A few days later, we announced a new ECU deal - covering 2013-2020.

The two programs will renew the series beginning next year, 2013, with a game on Sept. 14 in Greenville and will play there in again in 2015, 2017 and 2019. ECU will visit Blacksburg in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020.

The two teams had mutually agreed not to meet in 2012 or 2013 because of the ACC's impending nine-game conference schedule, but when the league voted to go back to eight conference games, it necessitated the need for a fourth non-league game for everyone. Tech originally had Pittsburgh as a non-conference game, but that now becomes an ACC contest with the Panthers joining the league next season.

December 2012 - VT and ODU announce a 2-and-1 series for 2016, 2018, and 2019. The 2016 game is later moved to 2017 (likely due to shuffling to accommodate the Battle of Bristol.)

May 2013 - Less than a year and a half after Danny Coale caught the damn ball, VT and Michigan announce a series for 2020-2021.

July 3, 2013 - VT schedules WVU for 2021-2022.

July 2013 - the Wisconsin games were moved from 2016-2017 to 2019-2020.

August 2013 - VT schedules Penn State for 2022-2023.

November 2013 - VT and ODU agree to a four game home-and-home series for 2022-2025. This deal was handled by John Ballein, who got a Masters from ODU in 1987.

December 2013 - VT adds Purdue to 2015 and 2023 schedules. (Just for reference, Tim Sands left Purdue to become VT president on June 1, 2014.)

January 24, 2014 - Whit Babcock hired.

July 2014 - VT vs. WVU at FedEx is announced for 2017.

October 2014 - Wisconsin gets rescheduled from 2019-2020 to 2024-2025.

January 2015 - Rutgers added to the 2023-2024 schedules. Four more ECU games added in 2022-2025 (none in 2021). Games against PSU (previously 2022-2023) rescheduled for 2020 and 2025.

February 2016 - Four game series with Maryland announced for 2026-2029.

August 2016 - Two game series against Arizona announced for 2029-2030.

July 28, 2017 - VT announces games against ODU in 2026-2031 (6 total), Liberty in 2022 and 2027-2030 (5 total), BYU in 2026 and 2030, and VMI in 2026.

March 2018 - Michigan cancelled the planned games against VT in 2020-2021.

Prior to this cancellation, our 2020 lineup was Liberty, Penn State, at Michigan, and North Alabama.
Our 2021 lineup was Michigan, at WVU, Notre Dame, and Richmond. (I don't know exactly when the Richmond game was announced, but I'm pretty sure it was around 2012. I just remember having that circled for the longest time because that was a big matchup for my family as my wife went to UR and we targeted that game to be my son's first football game.)

May 2018 - just for context, this is when the Alabama/Texas home-and-home for 2022-2023 was announced. This is the first home-and-home scheduled for Alabama since circa 2011-2012.

June 11, 2018 - VT replaces Michigan with MTSU in 2020-2021.

September 15, 2018 - VT was supposed to host ECU, but ECU cancelled the game due to a pending hurricane and proceeded to travel to Florida for their next scheduled game.

November 18, 2018 - Marshall agrees to play us on December 1 if we beat uva. Part of this deal includes a future home-and-home series.

December 2018 - VT pulls out of the games scheduled at ECU in 2019, 2023, and 2025. We eventually add a second FCS team to our 2019 schedule.

July 2019 - Wisconsin adds Alabama to their schedule in 2024-2025 and pushes our games to 2031-2032.

September 24, 2019 - VT and ECU officially cancel their series for 2020-2025.

October 31, 2019 - VT announces a bunch of schedules changes and additions. North Alabama (2020), Wofford (2022), Marshall (2023-2024), and JMU (2025) are announced as ECU replacements. (The Marshall games are part of the deal for the last minute 2018 game.) At the time, all but Marshall are FCS opponents. Ole Miss is added for 2032 and 2037, while Alabama joins the 2034-2035 schedules. VT also announces another SEC opponent for 2024-2025.

November 19, 2019 - the mystery 2024-2025 SEC opponent is revealed to Vanderbilt. These games are replacing Wisconsin.

2020 - COVID laughs at our meticulously scheduled lives. Non con games against PSU, Middle Tennessee (replacement for Michigan), and North Alabama (replacement for ECU) are cancelled.

December 2020 - The Penn State game in 2025 is officially cancelled as PSU did not want to reschedule their 2020 trip to Blacksburg.

January 2021 - the "Beamer Bowl" is scheduled for 2025 - VT vs. USCe in the Chick-fil-a Kickoff. This game replaces PSU on the schedule.

August 2022 - The 2026 BYU game rescheduled for 2033, due to BYU joining the Big 12 and losing 9 non con spots per year.

In summary, the parts most folks care about -- who did the ECU, ODU, and Liberty deals?

ECU - any games scheduled for 2020 or earlier were done by Weaver. Whit added four more games a year after he was hired. (Three of Weaver's games and all of Whit's games were cancelled.)
ODU - The original 3 game series and first 4 game extension (up to 2025) were scheduled by Weaver and/or Ballein (all of these were scheduled before we played them the first time). The six game extension covering 2026-2031 was done by Whit between our first two meetings.
Liberty - I can't find an exact date when the 2016 and 2020 games were scheduled, but both were under a deal while Liberty was still FCS. The additional five games added, including the ones in Lynchburg were all done by Whit.

Fortunately, we only had one year of ECU and ODU on the same schedule (2017), but it was scheduled to occur 6 more times (2018-2019, 2022-2025). None of that overlap was scheduled by Whit.

However, Whit is partially responsible for the Liberty/ODU overlap in 2022 (for scheduling Liberty), and completely responsible for the 2027-2030 overlap. Keep in mind that all of the ODU and Liberty extensions were made before our relationship with ECU turned sour. So who knows what the schedules past 2026 could have looked like. We did have the Liberty/ODU/ECU trifecta on the 2022 schedule before the hurricane. (Again, that blame would be shared between Weaver, Ballein, and Whit.)

Interestingly enough, I believe 2026 will be the first season where the entire non con schedule was completely scheduled during Whit's tenure.